Magical Mistakes and Clean Slates
by pezgirl1
Summary: stargateBuffy XOVER: Another of Willow's spells goes spectacularly wrong and she's not the only one that has to deal with the consequences. Post season 7 of BTVS
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: i don't own the character

Maybe she should've listened to friends; yeah, she definitely should've listened to them

Maybe she should've listened to friends; yeah, she definitely should've listened to them. If she had she wouldn't be in this mess, she wouldn't be crouched on her bedroom floor looking under the bed. She wouldn't be trying to coax a young boy from under the said piece of furniture.

It wasn't quite what she'd expected. But then again her magic usually backfired on her. Okay, right now she needed to do a little damage control; she tucked some red hair behind her right ear and peeked under the bed again. Her green eyes connected with the boy's brown ones; "Come on, you can't stay under there forever," she said bringing up some much-needed logic to hopefully draw the kid out.

He couldn't have been more than eight years old, his longish brown hair hung in his eyes as he stared at her with no small amount of fear from where he lay flat on his stomach.

Exasperated, Willow sighed, "I'm not gonna hurt you, okay?" she'd been in this position for almost an hour, maybe she should call Buffy.

The redhead immediately threw that suggestion out the window; the blonde Slayer already had a lot on her plate; this was her fault so she'd put this right. Too bad she didn't quite know how to deal with kids. Teenagers, she could; but not little kids.

"Are you a w-witch?" the boy said in a small voice.

Surprised, Willow nodded; did the boy see her casting the spell? He had to have done, there was no other reason to ask that question. Maybe the blinding flash of light hadn't stopped him from seeing her; only stopped her from seeing him at first. At first he'd just looked at her bewildered and then had dived under the bed after dropping a gun.

Willow shook her head, what the hell was that kid doing with a gun in his hands? She looked back at the object which was on the floor behind her looking harmless and docile.

"You're not going to turn me into a f-frog, are you?" he asked fearfully.

Frogs? Ew! The horrified and revolted look must have shown on her face because the eight year old frowned in confusion. "You don't like frogs?"

Frogs? Slimy, disgusting, green, bug-eyed, squelchy frogs- heck no! "No," she said.

"But you're a witch," he said looking puzzled and less scared. "Witches like frogs…and broomsticks too!"

Willow smiled, "I'm not THAT kind of witch! I'm—" she thought for a second. "Have you watched 'The Wizard of Oz'?"

The boy gave her a blank look, then screwed his face up in concentration, "No, I don't think so."

"O-oh, well--" Willow thought for a second. "I'm a good witch, and frogs are just icky."

He nodded eyes wide, and said, "I thought only evil witches went black like that."

Willow looked confused, "Huh?" Black?

The boy nodded, "Your hair was all black- I thought that meant that you were evil." He looked down uncertainly and then looked back up at her. "But you're not evil, are you?"

Willow shook her head, "No, there was an evil-me that I met a few years back—well, that's a different story for another time." Best not to confuse the already-confused kid.

She decided to change the subject, "So, um, I'm Willow- that's my name….what yours?"

He opened his mouth to answer and then faltered, "Uh, I dunno…I DON'T KNOW WHAT MY NAME IS!"

Willow looked stricken, "What did I do?" Pulled a little kid into her room and wiped his memory, said a little voice in the back her head.

She frowned and looked down averting her eyes away from the scared- almost hysterical- child under the bed. Right now she needed to calm him down.

"Maybe you've got your name written on the insides of your shoes," she suggested helplessly. He stopped panicking but still looked frightened.

"Why don't you come out from under the bed," she said hopefully. "You know I won't hurt you." At least she hoped he did.

He nodded slowly and started moving towards her, she moved back from the bed to give him room; as he came out from the bed she put a hand on his shoulder and helped him up to his feet. She smiled and brushed some hair away from his eyes, "See, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

He shook his head looking a lot less scared than he was an hour ago, he looked down at his shoes and then knelt down to take them off; the witch helped him untie his shoelaces before he pulled them off to check inside.

Willow wondered how on earth her spell could have turned out like this; she had gotten a call a while ago from the Fang Gang back in LA, their friend 'Gunn' was missing and they were hoping that she could bring him back using her magic. The spell was foolproof- at least she thought it was. She just had to do the right things in the right order, use the right ingredients and say the right name.

And she had. So what had gone wrong?

"Charlie!" the boy said happily. "My name's Charlie."

Willow smiled, "Nifty." Her smile faltered a little. "Um, Charlie?"

"Yeah?"

The redhead gestured over to the firearm lying on the carpet a little away from them, "Why were you holding that gun?"

And with that question it suddenly dawned on her what had gone wrong, she groaned, "Figures."

She'd said the right name, 'Charles Gunn' but for some reason it backfired and she got a kid named Charlie holding a gun. "Wow, and here I thought I had my magic fully under my control…guess not."

Chapter two

Willow gripped the firearm firmly while making sure not to touch the trigger; she had hoped, after the Warren Mears incident, that she would never see a gun again. She hated them.

She opened the cupboard above her head and pushed the gun onto the highest shelf, so high that even she could barely reach it and had to stand on the tips of her toes and use her fingertips to put it there; away from Charlie's eyes and reach.

It had been two hours since she'd coaxed the boy from under her bed and he was now sitting at the table in the same room she was in, the kitchen, and was scoffing down a bowl of Froot Loops. She had decided that Charlie should try to sleep at half nine; at that moment it was only eight-forty-five, she was pretty sure that that was the time eight year old kids were sent to bed by their parents.

She turned to Charlie and said, "When you've finished the cereal we'll find you some night-clothes, 'kay?" then she was going to have to figure out where he was going to sleep…he could take her room, or maybe the spare room where Xander or Buffy sometimes slept. She'd let him choose.

Charlie grinned around his mouthful of cereal and nodded before plunging his spoon into the bowl's contents, Willow smiled slightly. As soon as Charlie was up in his temporary room she could search on her Laptop and find out if there were any 'missing persons' files, though she wouldn't be surprised if there were. He'd only been missing for a few hours.

If only Charlie could remember his last name, it would narrow down the search.

Willow plodded up the stairs slowly wondering where she could find Charlie some night-clothes, her best friend had lent her one of his shirts once when they were in their early teens; she never remembered to give it back to him.

She pushed open the spare-bedroom door and made a beeline for the chest of drawers; she riffled and rummaged through the old clothes that she hadn't had the time to throw away and eventually she saw the illustration of 'Snoopy' on a shirt; she pulled it from the drawer and shook it out from it's folded state.

With her tongue caught between her teeth she smiled, Xander had loved 'Snoopy' when they were kids; shaking her head of the thoughts she examined it. It was a little too big for Charlie; it would come down passed his knees. But it didn't matter, he was only staying for a night.

She doubted that Charlie would mind.

Speaking of 'mind', how would she get his memories back. She couldn't sent the boy back with amnesia, his parents would freak…well, it wasn't right that Charlie should have no memories of the last eight years of his life.

She'd talk to Giles in the morning.

The redhead folded the shirt in half and draped it over her right arm before making her way out the door; she turned back briefly and looked around the room. Nodded, and then continued out.

She hoped Charlie would like the room.

"I'm finished now!" chirped the young boy enthusiastically as she walked into the kitchen. He jumped down from his seat and gazed at her expectantly.

"Okay, well…um," she thought for a moment. "You can use my toothbrush if you want and um…ah, here's your night-clothes." Yep, she sucked at kids, not teenagers though.

Charlie grinned, "I like 'Snoopy', but not as much as 'Homer'." He took the garment from her.

Willow smiled at him feeling relieved, score: one for Willow!

"I guess it's night-time for you, mister," she said. "Do you want a drink before you go up?" Charlie nodded.

"Have you got any apple juice?" he asked hopefully. Willow nodded and went to the refrigerator; she pulled open the door and pushed some of the items out of the way to get to a carton of juice.

She finally withdrew the juice, shut the refrigerator door and handed it to Charlie. "When you've finished that I'll show you the room you're sleeping in for tonight."

Charlie stopped what he was doing: which was piercing the small, silver, circular film on the carton with the straw and looked up at her surprised, "Just for tonight?"

"You wanna go home, don't you?" she asked surprised. "Back to your family."

Charlie looked down, "I don't know, I can't remember them." He shifted feeling embarrassed and slightly hurt. "You do want me here, right?"

Willow thought for a moment, "Of course, but I'm not your mom, so whether or not I want you here…which I do…i-it's not up to me."

"Oh," Charlie shuffled his feet. "Will you take care of me until we find my mom and dad?"

It would depend on how long it would take for her to find the parents and also how long it would take the police to list Charlie as a missing person; if they listed him before she had a chance to find them then she'd have to call in to say that the boy had been found and she'd have to make up a story.

But she didn't want to do that, she wanted to find Charlie's parents and have them reunited without any trouble from the law or the supernatural.

"Willow?"

Oops, she'd zoned out. "We'll have to wait and see, sweetie."

He looked at her for a few seconds, brown eyes boring into her own green ones and then he said, "'kay."

Willow smiled to break the tension and said, "So, you like 'The Simpsons' huh?"

Charlie grinned and eased up.

Alternate Reality, 4 hours earlier

Date: Late 1995

Sara O'Neill sat at the foot of the stone steps outside in the front garden in a button-up dress and looked up as she heard the car door slam, she smiled brightly as her husband, Jack, jogged towards her enthusiastically and came to join her on the steps.

Jack wrapped his arms around her and their lips met in a long kiss, "How was your day?"

"Fine."

"Oh, look what Charlie brought home from school today," she bent down slightly and withdrew a framed photo of a grinning brunette boy from her bag.

"Is Charlie 'bout ready?" he asked as he looked at the photo of his son.

"Yeah, he was running 'round here a couple of minutes ago," she said looking around the garden.

Jack looked away from the photo and saw that his son wasn't in the garden at all, he sighed; "I'll go look for him." He wondered if Charlie was still mad at him for not getting him that water gun he wanted.

It had been two weeks since then and they still hadn't made up.

Jack jogged up the steps to the house door and went inside, "Charlie!?" he called he waited for the sounds of his son's footsteps on the stairs.

Silence.

"Oy, that boy can really hold a grudge," shaking his head he went upstairs.

His son's door was closed when he got to it, he twisted the door knob and went inside, "Charlie—the hell…"

The room was completely deserted aside from him, he heard his wife come into the house and he ran out of the room, "Sara! Have you seen Charlie?"

"No, isn't he in his room?" she called back up.

"Ah, nope."

After searching the house both he and his wife had come to the distressing conclusion that their son was missing as well as Jack's gun which hadn't got the safety on.

Higher Realms

The Powers That Be looked down at what was happening in the Alternate reality, the reality was one of hundreds where the Stargate may or may not exist. It was a reality that was not as important as some of the others.

One other reality was extremely close to the Witch's reality; one with a Stargate, one where the boy's father had joined the fight against the Goa'uld after his son shot himself accidentally. The year in that particular reality was 2001, over six years after the Stargate was used to go to Abydos.

The reality that the boy was taken from alive just before he pulled the trigger was one that was of less importance to them, they rarely took any notice of it as it was not at all close to the reality with the supernatural.

Still, they were not as coldhearted as lower beings sometimes thought; they observed the parents of the child that had disappeared from his bedroom and decided that it would be best if the O'Neill's forgot they even had a child.

It was best that they just had the boy's existence erased from their memories completely as well as everyone else who had had contact with him.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter three

1:23am

Charlie opened his eyes sleepily, he frowned slightly and rolled over before pulling the covers over his head. He jumped as he heard the window bang and gulped in trepidation; fighting back his fear of monsters he rolled onto his back, turned his head slightly and peaked out from under the covers warily. He could see the window, and nothing was there.

He blinked, maybe he'd dreamed the noise, no- he didn't think he did. Swallowed hard, his throat dry, he moved the covers away from him and slowly got out of bed and made sure that his eyes never left the window. He walked quietly trying hard not to make a noise and grasped the curtains with both hands and quickly ripped them open before backwards-running immediately away from it incase anything jumped out at him.

There was nothing there, no monsters or anything; he sighed feeling half relieved half embarrassed as his rapidly-thumping heart slowed down to normal rhythm; he shivered slightly and suddenly wanted to get back into his bed, his nice WARM bed. He turned his back on the window certain that there were no monsters outside and made a beeline straight to his bed. As he climbed into it-

BANG!

He jumped in fright which caused him to topple right off the bed and onto the carpeted floor with a dull 'thud', quickly he got back up and turned his attention to the window again and his heart jumped into his throat, his eyes widened, as he saw a dark form at the window, he could see the form because he'd forgotten to close the curtains. The form punched through the glass, which shattered, and then the monster climbed through it; the boy saw that it indeed was a monster; it had mottle green skin that looked leathery and was stretched tightly over its skeleton so that he could practically see through the skin. The monster's form was humanoid except for the skin and the head which looked like, except for a few differences, it belonged to a shark; it had watery-grey eyes that were fixed on him with a look of hunger and curiosity.

Charlie struggled to breathe as he felt his throat tighten, he couldn't wrench his gaze from the monster as it fully entered his room; he wanted to run but his legs wouldn't move; he noticed that another monster was coming through the window and looked similar to its companion.

Monster number one, he called the first monster that came into his room, leered at him, "Aww, lost little lamb looks ALL alone!" taunted Monster number one slyly. The monster moved towards him slowly, wanting to draw out its prey's fear, and circled him; he said, "You're not supposed to be here," Monster number one said smirking but still looking curious. "You're not supposed to be anywhere; you're different."

Monster number two grinned, "Maybe he'll taste different, he's not from around here, bet he'll taste-" Monster number two leered. "-nummy."

Charlie gulped, they wanted to EAT him!? He probably wouldn't even taste nice, and he was short…and scrawny too! If only he could talk and persuade them not to eat him. White-faced with fear he stood frozen, staring at the monsters and-

His vision filled with blue light for a few seconds and when the light died away he saw that the monsters had both disappeared from his sight, feeling confused and still scared he looked around and felt only relief as he saw Willow walking further into the room and looking up at-

Charlie followed her line of sight and gaped, the two monsters were hung suspended in thin by themselves, the green-skinned monsters swung their fists in empty air and shouted furiously at the redheaded woman who was smirking at them dangerously. She looked at him concerned, "Charlie, you okay?"

Well, he wasn't eaten…so, "Uh huh," he nodded looking slightly dazed.

"Hey! We were going to eat him!" cried one of the monsters angrily. His grey eyes flashed furiously with anger as he stared at the young woman indignantly.

Willow's gaze hardened so much the monsters gulped; "Really?" her voice was low, dangerous.

"N-no," croaked a monster nervously. "W-we were just-

Willow rolled her eyes and muttered something about 'stupid demons' and 'protection wards', then she turned to Charlie and said, "Close your eyes and block your ears, okay?"

She didn't want to frighten him anymore than he had been, Charlie nodded, screwed his eyes shut and clamped his hands over his ears. Willow, satisfied, turned back to the demons and threw a fireball at one of them, that monster screamed and then blew up in a haze of red and orange followed by torrents of grayish demon blood; the fireball hadn't dissipated yet and the witch redirected the destructive force right into the second demon.

Charlie squeezed his eyes tighter, squashed his ears more but despite this his efforts to block out the demons' inhuman screaming proved futile at best; his eyes were shut though he could still see the orange light glowing through his eyelids.

Then the screaming stopped and a moment later he felt his friend's warm arms go around him in a hug; his hands fell away from his ears and he wrapped his arms around her neck and pressed his face, eyes still shut tightly, into her warm shoulder.

Several minutes later Charlie and Willow were sitting on the bedroom floor together; the younger of the two was sitting on the other's lap, the boy looked up at the young woman curiously and still looked scared stiff, "T-they tried to e-eat me," he said faintly.

Willow brushed some of his longish brown hair behind his ear, "I know, sweetie." She looked at the window warily and then continued. "But they didn't…okay? You're okay."

Charlie swallowed and nodded, "I wasn't eaten…that's good."

The redhead nodded, "That's very good."

A little while later Willow decided that they should try to sleep, it was after two in the morning, but Charlie looked at his bed then the window which was still open and shook his head fearfully, "What if more monsters come to get me?" he didn't want to stay in this room, in the dark, all alone.

Willow nodded, "Want to come in with me?" Charlie smiled and nodded looking relieved. They got up slowly; the redhead shut the window, and made their way out of the room- which was still covered in demon blood- with Charlie holding on tightly to the redhead's hand.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter four

Chapter four

"There aren't any more monsters that are going to come into the house, right?" asked Charlie hopefully. He was looking at his temporary guardian over the rim of his glass of orange juice; he and Willow were sitting quietly at the breakfast table the next morning discussing the events of the previous night- though only to a point seeing as Charlie was just a little kid and should never have found out in the first place.

"I doubt it," answered the witch. "But if any do they'll go the same way the other two dem- monsters went." She didn't know why she hesitated to use the word 'demon', it was what they were, but it would be odd- to Charlie- if she called them demons while he called them monsters; as if she knew a lot about them. Which she did, but he didn't know that and she didn't want him to find out about demons, vampires, the supernatural; the whole shebang.

Willow sighed quietly, Charlie already knew about the 'monsters' and he'd seen what SHE had been able to do, it was only a matter of time before he brought that up. And what if answered the door and let a vampire in to her house- or his house, if they got him home?

"Willow?" the boy asked jerking her out of her thoughts, she looked at him as he looked back curiously. "You knew- about these monsters before last night? Right?"

The redhead searched for something to tell him, anything that would convince him that evil of the supernatural variety didn't exist, anything so that he could keep his innocent perspective on what was going on around him. She didn't want him to be scared of the things that lurked in the darkness; the world ending or anything that an eight year old shouldn't even be thinking about.

Sometimes, she wished she'd kept her own innocence and that she didn't know about the dark side of the world she lived in; but then she and the Scoobies wouldn't have averted all those Apocalypses; she also wouldn't have met the people that she knew and loved. If she had the chance to go back in time to stop herself finding out the truth would she have done it?

No. Of course not.

But Charlie had the choice that she had never had.

"Willow?"

She looked at him for a few moments before saying, "Charlie…I'm not sure you'd want to know, you'd probably regret me telling you if I did." He would, she was sure he would regret asking.

"About what? Monsters being real?" his big brown eyes stared into hers. "But I saw two of them, they were monsters and…and then you…" he trailed off staring at her open-mouthed. "Y-your not a monster are you?" He was sure she wasn't, but she'd done all that…stuff, and then there was the black hair and black eyes thing.

Charlie felt kind of bad asking her that when she looked hurt for a second before she appeared to hide it, she shook her head and he felt relieved though still guilty, "Oh, okay…um, so…how?"

"How did I make those demo- monsters float?" why did she not call them 'demons'? She didn't want Charlie to ask questions that would lead her to telling him about what went bump in the night.

"Yeah." Charlie frowned slightly and wondered why she kept tripping over the word 'monster', she was about to call them 'demo-' demo…what? "Why did you say 'demo' before saying monster?"

Willow groaned inwardly, "Uh, demo…demo…onstrations, demonstrations! Yeah, I mean…those d- monsters they weren't real…just a demonstration of…ah…"

She cringed, she was officially the world's crappiest liar; then again, hadn't she always been?

"Um…you're a real bad liar," stated Charlie looking amused. "Tell me, please?"

The redhead bit her lip looking worried, "Charlie…there's more to it than what you just saw, if I tell you I can't take it back…you'll probably wish you hadn't asked."

He blinked and then said, "I….I wanna know."

Willow considered this for several moments before sipping her coffee and looking over the rim of her cup at the boy sitting opposite her, "Okay." She would leave stuff out of course; there was no reason to tell him everything as he wouldn't be staying long enough to actually find out about everything. She'd have to tell him anyway, he already knew…he had seen two demons already.

Then again, he had only been with her for a few hours and already he'd been attacked by demons and found out about her not being normal- no she'd omit the details, if it came to it she'd have to tell him but until the time came she'd keep quiet about it.

"Monsters do exist, I call them demons because…well, that's what they are," she explained vaguely. "I'm human like you, but…a little different, I'm a witch as you said when you first appeared."

Charlie nodded smiling in awe, "That is so cool." Did she fight them? "Do you fight them?"

The witch nodded and then faltered, "Well, Buffy really- Uh" whoops. She shifted slightly in her seat and sipped her coffee again and looked around the room trying to get out of explaining who the Slayer was, 'cause that would lead to more questions.

The boy looked even more curious, if that was possible, "Who's Buffy?" A side-kick? He kept looking at her expectantly and she kept glancing around the room as if looking for a way out.

Willow sighed and decided to omit, it wasn't lying so maybe she wouldn't be too obvious, "She's…my best friend, since high school." No lying there, just omitting the fact that the said best friend was a mystical Slayer with the speed and strength of ten fully grown men…yep, no lying whatsoever.

"Does SHE know about mo-demons?" he queried enthusiastically.

Willow nodded in reply and Charlie sat up in his chair grinning, "So, you've been fighting demons since high school? Wow, how long? How did you find out? Is Buffy you're side-kick? Is anyone else fighting them? Are they normal or like you?" he rattled off questions excitedly and then paused after the last to think of any others and to listen to the answers.

The redhead looked slightly overwhelmed with the questions and then decided to answer quickly so as not to forget the questions, "Yes, almost eight years, got attacked by a demon, Buffy's the leader, a lot of people are fighting them; my friends are some of them, some are normal while others are like me but different…a few are demons-

"Huh?" his face was a little screwed up in confusion.

"Oh…well, there are nice demons." She explained thinking of Angel and Anya, not to mention Oz; not that he was a demon- just a werewolf, and she needed to keep on topic. "Not all demons are evil."

Charlie nodded but didn't say anything.

"That's pretty much it, there are bad guys- we're the good guys," she explained trying not to sound too vague; she didn't want to have to explain how many times the world almost ended, how many times the world almost got sucked into Hell and how many kids and teenagers had got killed keeping ignorant people safe…how many people SHE'D killed and how she'd almost succeeded in doing what evil beings had failed to do before her- end the world and all life on it.

The brown-haired child could tell there were things that she wasn't telling him and he decided not to ask her, he puffed his chest out slightly and thought that he was being very grown-up because he wanted to ask her what else she wasn't telling him but he didn't ask. He looked at her and saw that she was looking more than a little sad; she also looked kinda like a kid who got caught with her hand in the cookie jar before dinner…only worse, and that was why he wasn't asking.

Willow shook off her guilt quickly and was about to say something when the phone started ringing making both of them jump in shock, Charlie exclaimed loudly in shock and disappointment as the juice he was sipping splashed down his front, "Don't worry about it, sweetie. Just hold on a second and I'll get you a new shirt."

She practically ran to the phone and scooped it up, "Rosenberg," she informed automatically.

"Hey, Will," it was Cordelia Chase, ex-nemesis, former cheerleader.

"Cordy, hey!" yep, she couldn't hide the surprise in her voice. "Oh! The spell I used to find Gunn…it didn't go the way I expected-

"What're you talking about?" she interrupted in disbelief. "Your spell worked…only, I thought that when you completed the spell YOU'D get Gunn, not us…not that that's a bad thing of course, just a little warning would've been great."

Willow snorted, "I didn't even know the spell- wait, the spell actually worked!?"

"Uhhhh, Yeah!" was usual response of sarcasm and mockery. "Gunn just popped out of nowhere right in front of us, I swear if Angel HAD a heart that beat he would have had a heart attack."

"But Gunn's okay, right?" she heard the former cheerleader sigh.

"Yeah, he's fine; doesn't remember a thing," she explained.

Willow nodded, "That's good-

"Willow! It's getting sticky!" protested Charlie loudly, he had a look of revulsion on his cute face as he poked and prodded at his now-sticky-shirt. "Ick."

"Who's that?" asked Cordy sounding confused and curious at the same time.

It was the redhead's turn to sigh, "The spell…it, uh, kinda backfired." She'd never thought she'd have to say those words again, but here she was. "But if the spell worked with Gunn, then why did Charlie pop up here?"

"Charlie?"

"Yeah, uh, he's the kid you just heard a second ago," Willow explained trying to ignore the irritated look the kid now had on his face as he looked at the phone in her hand.

"Stupid phone," she heard him mutter.

"Wait, so the spell worked, but it backfired too?" asked Cordy incredulously. "Huh, wonder why that is."

Willow shook her head, "So do I." she wondered if there was a reason why Charlie was here, besides the spell. She turned to Charlie, "Sweetie, go upstairs and try to find another shirt."

He nodded and walked out of the room.

"Is the kid okay?" she asked concerned.

The redhead rubbed the bridge of her nose, "He doesn't remember anything, god, Cordy…I pulled him away from his parents and erased his memories and-

"You didn't do that, it was an accident," stated the brunette over the phone. "Does, um, Charlie know about how he was pulled in?"

Willow opened her mouth and then closed it again, "No, I guess not." She smiled to herself sheepishly and was startled when she felt fear clasp at her heart. Why was she scared? She wasn't scared, was she? What was she scared of?

"I think he should know, Will," said Cordelia gently. "If it was me I'd want to know."

The redhead bit her lip anxiously and then faltered, so that was what was making her feel uncomfortable; she didn't want to tell him. But why? Cordy was right, he deserved to know.

What if he hated her? The voice at the back of her mind muttered. She had, after all, taken him from his parents, she'd almost gotten him killed by putting him in the path of two dangerous albeit stupid demons. She tried to turn away from the fear, why should she care this much? She'd only known him for about a day, if he hated her, so what?

Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Willow breathed out slowed. Pretending she didn't care wasn't helping, it wasn't going to help Charlie either. Get a grip, Will. It's your mistake, fix it and get the kid home.

She nodded to herself firmly before she remembered that Cordy was on the phone, "Heeeeyyy! Will!" she drew out loudly snapping her out of her daydream. "Anyone there?"

Willow snorted at her jibe, "There wasn't a second ago." Cordy chuckled, the redhead smiled and jumped at a sudden 'thump' that came from upstairs. "Charlie! You okay?!"

"Yes! I found a Snoopy!" he yelled happily from upstairs.

Willow shook her head slightly in bafflement, "Charlie just found Xander's Snoopy doll. Huh, you know he kinda reminds me of Xander…when we were younger."

There was silence for a moment, "What? The Snoopy doll?"

"No!" the redhead laughed amused. "Charlie."

"Ah," muttered Cordy sounding a little embarrassed. "Right."

"Look, I gotta go," said Willow suddenly sounding wary. "I'm glad Gunn's back." Now she had to tell Charlie of her involvement in the spell, damn.

They hung up at the same time, Willow turned away from the phone; looked up at the ceiling where she knew, at the other side, Charlie was playing; and sighed.

She walked towards the stairs.


End file.
